Recent Articles



A year after the riots: could money solve Tottenham’s problems?

by Guest     July 29, 2012 at 9:54 am

contribution by Alvin Carpio

Voltaire once said, “When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.” I’m not so sure about that.

Shortly after the riots ended last year, Tottenham has received a wave of investment into its local economy. However, money alone cannot solve the area’s problems and unless they are dealt with head on we run the risk of more civil unrest.

Sir William Castell’s business coalition set up a £1m High Street Fund to support Tottenham’s local business community. The department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) has awarded grants to 150 businesses totalling £365,000 and more than £1m of rate relief has been awarded to date.
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37 Comments   ¦   29th July

Pics: NHS nurses after the #Olympics ceremony

by Sunny Hundal     July 28, 2012 at 9:59 pm

You saw the NHS nurses at the Olympics ceremony last night… but what happened afterwards?

They returned home of course, many of them decked out in their brilliant costumes. Some went out drinking afterwards.

Naturally, Twitter was ablaze with their pictures. Here is a selection.

(pics via various sources, including NYT)

89 Comments   ¦   28th July

Ten of the silliest Tweets from #Olympics ceremony

by Sunny Hundal     July 28, 2012 at 3:09 pm

Obviously Aidan Burley MP takes the top spot for ‘idiocy during the Olympics opening ceremony’ – but he wasn’t alone.

Here were some other contenders for that title last night.

Murdoch wasn’t so brazen though…

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Really??!

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Looks like Harry Cole was (unsuccessfully) trying to do an Aidan Burley…

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(some via Tim Fenton)

And our top runner up…

Really? You want the empire back? ‘Piers Morgan is an ignorant tool’ shocker.

94 Comments   ¦   28th July

That Aidan Burley Olympics disaster in full

by Sunny Hundal     July 28, 2012 at 1:31 pm

Aidan Burley – the Tory MP previously exposed as having attended a Nazi-themed stag party, was caught shooting his mouth off last night.

This is what he tweeted during the Olympics opening ceremony

And then later…

Credit to one Tory MP for hitting back

Wikipedia wasn’t far behind.

So what exactly Aidan Burley mean?

He was asked to clarify by the media this morning.

He told BBC WM:

I agree [multi-culturalism] should be celebrated. I wasn’t having a go at multiculturalism itself, I was having a go at the rather trite way, frankly, it was represented in the opening ceremony.

We all love the NHS but really for all the people watching overseas, 20 minutes of children and nurses jumping on beds, that seems quite strange. And then we had all these rappers – that is what got me to the point about multiculturalism.

Is that what we are most proud of culturally?

He added his tweets might not have been the greatest thing for his career, but if it started a debate then it can only have been a good thing. I think the only debate started was how much of a prat Mr Burley is.

He also gave an interview to ITV this morning:

He says “parts of it were overtly political, like showing CND signs.”

He think that “it was all rather clichéd about multiculturalism” though he accepts he could have phrased his tweets better.

But in comments that could further annoy, he wondered “why there was the huge, disproportionate focus on rap music when it is a small part of multiculturalism.”

What focus on rap music? There was one bit of Dizzee Rascal rapping for a minute – that’s it.

Perhaps he just meant there were too many black people there?

101 Comments   ¦   28th July

Do we need freedom from work?

by Guest     July 28, 2012 at 10:14 am

contribution by Luke Martell

Unemployment is sky-high across Europe. It might not seem the best time to be talking about freedom from work. But less work can provide greater autonomy for the employed, and help the jobless.

Political theories talk about freedom from state oppression, or what resources people need for liberty.

But freedom of time, from constraints of work, is discussed less. This is important. Many of us spend large parts of our lives doing work that impinges on this kind of freedom.
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60 Comments   ¦   28th July

The Chancellor should listen to new calls for a stimulus

by Duncan Weldon     July 27, 2012 at 3:27 pm

After this week’s disastrous GDP figures there have been more calls for the Chancellor to change course and start to stimulate the economy. That’s maybe not a surprise; many of us have been making this call for the past two years.

More interesting is the source of today’s interventions.

Richard Lambert, former head of the CBI, former member of the monetary policy committee and former editor of the FT, writes today that (behind FT paywall):
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9 Comments   ¦   27th July

Video clips from upcoming BBC political comedy

by Newswire     July 27, 2012 at 12:49 pm

BBC is soon to start broadcasting a new political comedy series starring the two pranksters from Don’t Panic magazine: Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein.

Titled ‘The Revolution Will be Televised’, it will air on BBC3.

Liberal Conspiracy has been sent two previews clips of the show:

35 Comments   ¦   27th July

The way to dealing with tax evasion is not cutting taxes

by Richard Murphy     July 27, 2012 at 12:07 pm

I’m amused to read a typical right wing response to Tax Justice’s new report – The Price of Offshore Revisited, which suggests that as much as $32 trillion of wealth may be located in tax havens – is to suggest that the problem could be solved by cutting the rate of tax on the wealthy.

What Eric Jackson, who suggested this in Forbes, is in effect saying is that the best way to reward those who have in very many cases broken the law by hiding their wealth offshore, so as to undermine the state, is to undermine the state in its own backyard instead.

We should next be expecting them to suggest that the best way to beat burglars is to ban locks. The logic would be identical.
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120 Comments   ¦   27th July

Watch: Jeremy Hunt breaks Olympics bell

by Newswire     July 27, 2012 at 12:01 pm

via Channel 4 News

Update: And now, the Disco Remix!

85 Comments   ¦   27th July

Another police force gets it badly wrong on anti-rape advice

by Sian Norris     July 26, 2012 at 2:00 pm

“Don’t let a night full of promise turn into a morning full of regret”, says the headline on West Mercia Police’s web page dedicated to tackling rape.

“Did you know”, they ask “if you drink excessively, you could leave yourself more vulnerable to regretful sex or even rape?”

To the women in West Mercia, rape is presented as some kind of natural hazard that we can avoid, keep safe from, by staying sober. In one sentence, the police have reduced the causes of rape to one thing – alcohol.
continue reading… »

171 Comments   ¦   26th July

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